Jon Grissom Academy

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The stated mission of the Jon Grissom Academy, commissioned in 2176, is to "serve a student population demonstrating excellence and passion for math, science, and the liberal arts." Its entirely human student body ranges in age from the early teens to the mid-twenties. Although the fact is not heavily advertised, the institution also offers classes for students with biotic capability. The school's Ascension Project seeks to train these students and integrate them into normal society.

The Jon Grissom Academy, founded in 2176, is the Alliance's premier school for young human biotics. The institution is housed in a space station in orbit over the human colony of Elysium. Its main program, the Ascension Project, is designed both to train and monitor young biotics as well as help them integrate into society after graduation. Unlike the project's previous incarnation, Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training, or BAaT, the training is not exclusively military in nature.

The academy also employs scientific personnel, including Dr. Kahlee Sanders, to develop synthetic intelligence systems and biotic amplifiers like the new L4 implants.

In 2186 during the Reaper invasion, though war would close most schools, fewer than twenty, teachers and students, stayed at Grissom Academy to train biotics and prototype technology for the Alliance. Unfortunately, the Academy is attacked by Cerberus forces seeking to capture the students. The attack goes unnoticed because Cerberus uses a turian military signal to broadcast that the station is being evacuated by turian ships. Specialist Traynor and EDI connect the signal to a similar one known to have been used by the Illusive Man to lure Commander Shepard to a Collector Cruiser and inform Shepard.

Upon arriving at the station, Jeff "Joker" Moreau uses the Normandy SR-2 to distract the Cerberus cruiser and fighters guarding the station while Shepard and the team board it. Shepard encounters Kahlee Sanders, who has barricaded herself in a security room, and goes on to rescue the station's remaining students. After the students are evacuated, Grissom Academy is abandoned. The Academy and nearby Elysium later fall to the Reapers.